Many therapeutic as well as diagnostic procedures require the identification of a targeted region of the anatomy of a patient. Examples of such procedures include performing a biopsy on the patient, placing a shunt catheter within the patient, obtaining an image of the patient through diagnostic imaging, and inserting a pedicle screw within the patient. Typically, the planning of either a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure entails examining patient data obtained, generally, through an imaging scan, identifying specific target structures in the image or images, and then deciding upon a plan for effecting the procedure.
An increasing number and variety of clinical procedures utilize image guides. Such image guides include image guides for performing biopsies, inserting shunts, and attaching pedicle screws. Planning diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that utilize such guides typically entails selecting an appropriate entrance point into and precise trajectory of the image guide within the body of the patient. As with medical procedure planning generally, the task of planning a procedure that utilizes an image guide is complicated by the fact that the effectiveness of the procedure usually depends critically on choosing an image guide that closely aligns with the particular anatomical features of the patient's body.
Although the same procedure may be carried out again and again in clinical practice, the only guidance that a clinician typically has in planning the procedure is the clinician's own personal experience. For example, if the procedure is the placing of a pedicle screw within a patient, the clinician usually must identify the exact placement entry point of the screw and its path of trajectory for each patient anew. Moreover, even if a particular clinician has performed the procedure many times in the past, the clinician typically only has his or her own experience from which to draw; there generally is no existing mechanism by which the clinician can leverage the experience derived from other clinicians who have performed the procedure. Nor is there any efficient mechanism by which the clinician can obtain a first, best guess at how to proceed in order to save valuable time in the initial planning of a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure.
Similarly with respect to the customizing of diagnostic and therapeutic devices for specific patients, there is no mechanism by which patient-specific devices can be rapidly prototyped by drawing upon designs that have generally proved successful with other patients. The lack of an efficient mechanism for customizing a generally successful design of a diagnostic or therapeutic device to match the anatomical features of a specific patient hampers the rapid prototyping of patient-specific devices.